Escape
by Lita Snow
Summary: Based on Megurine Luka's song 'Witch Hunt'. As Luka is tied to the stake, her mind flashes through her situation and how this came to occur. Bitter and heartbroken, she accepts the magic within her blood and frees herself, but before she takes off, she has a few things she wants to set straight first.


A/N: This is not a songfic, though I use lyrics at the beginning and end of the fic. My lyrics and understanding of the song are based off of Juby Phonic's English cover of the song, titled 'Witch Hunt'. If you haven't seen her version, I would encourage you to look it up, as that might aid in your comprehension of this story. Just a friendly suggestion ^_^ I don't own the lyrics, song, or Luka.

Tied tight to a cross, I look longing at the sky…

"_Penitence for your crimes! Penitence and your life!" _

If I pray, who will hear? I am drowning in their cheers.

Devotion turned to dusty tombs…

"If my love was just a curse then I have only tears to shed…"

_"Penitence for your crime! Penitence and your life!"_

"Let it light, let it burn out bright and choke on all your spite!"

_"No god can help her find her way!"_

I barely felt the tears still dripping down my face. What did it matter anyway? They were just a physical manifestation of the bitterness, frustration, heartbreak coursing through me.

I stared at the prince, my glare burning into his eyes. He couldn't look at me; I wished vindictively that it was because he was ashamed at what he was doing. I was not a witch, and he damn well knew it.

I spared a glance for the sister beside him. How could she do this? Make up a story that would end in my death? She knew what she was doing. I was no witch, but she twisted my history to suit her scheme. Was it really so horrible that the prince had fallen for me? She was part of the church; she couldn't have had him anyway. Why had she needed to concoct a story that she knew would kill me? Such a jealous, spiteful chit needs her god more than I do. She _knows_ this is wrong. And yet she convinced the prince this was right and just anyway.

At that, my eyes returned to the man. How had she managed to persuade him I was magicking him into loving me? As if I would do such a thing! I would never take away another person's control. I thought that he loved me. But here he was, ordering that I be burned as a witch. _Fuck you, sir. How dare you. I pity the next girl to fall for you. No doubt she'll be killed just as you mean to kill me._

I couldn't bear to look at him any longer. His betrayal would never fade. The bloody scars he'd left on my heart and the burns that were starting to form on my skin from the flames building beneath me would ensure I would never forget. I looked up at the sky above me. How could it be that even while something so terrible was happening, the sky could still be so beautiful? The oranges and pinks of the sunset melding with the coming blue of night was the only thing here worth watching.

I longed to take off, leave here and fly into that endless expanse of color and beauty. Anything to escape the pain, the fire, the jeers and cheers of the people gathered to watch me burn. Anything to escape the feelings burning in me just as the flames began to burn my feet, singeing my dress.

No one would hear me if I called out. Why should I even bother? But that nameless desire to escape engulfed me, and I silently cried out for salvation. For someone to save me from this fate.

_**Daughter. **_

My eyes widened. No. I knew that sound. That voice, silvery, ethereal, dark, thousands of voices combined into one, thrumming through my body, coursing through my blood. I had never wanted it. I had rejected it all my life.

_**Come, daughter. Embrace us. We will save you. Let the power flow through you and take you far from here, where no one will ever be able to hurt you again. **_

I _was not_ a witch. But magic did run through my blood. My mother had practiced magic, and through her it was passed on to me. But I had refused to accept it from the moment it got my mother killed. I had to watch her burn when I was just a child. I vowed that I would never use it, no matter what happened.

_**You will die, daughter. Please just accept us. We will protect you, we will keep you safe. You will never have to suffer like this again. **_

I made a personal promise to never use my magic. It was part of me, yes, but that didn't mean I had to use it. Nothing could happen without my consent. Magic was the reason my mother was killed.

But what did it really matter now? Did I really want to die like this, unjustly? I had done _nothing _ but I would still burn. It had been the reason for my mother's death. But I was going to die if I did nothing. If I had the chance to be free, to escape as I so desperately wanted to, why not take it…?

I screamed, and allowed the magic to flow freely within me. My blood heated quickly, then dropped ice cold. The flames no longer touched me. The multitude of ropes tying me to my wooden cross snapped like brittle twigs as enormous black wings sprouted from my back. With a great gust, they propelled me from the pyre, and with a graceful balance I was sure I hadn't had before, I alighted on top of the cross, a safe distance from the flaming wood now scattered on the ground from the wind created by my wings. It seemed I was more powerful than my mother, that I was able to escape my fire.

I could have taken off right then, but I had something I wanted to say first.

The crowd had been shocked into silence at my magic's advent. That suited me perfectly. "You all are so ignorant, so willing to be led like sheep to the slaughter based on a few words from a young woman." My voice carried easily over the square. I addressed them all, but it was the prince and the sister that I was really talking to. "Sister Miku had no proof that I was a witch. I have _never_ used magic until now and I had never intended to. She showed our prince a portrait of my mother, who had been burned for practicing magic in a village far from here. It is her 'crime' that she accused me of committing. How she even found it, I will never know. But the fact remains; I was not a practicing witch. How could I possibly practice the very magic that killed my mother?! I hate magic, even now. But if it will save me from a death that I do not deserve, then so be it."

My words rose over the growing noise of the crowd. "I did not use magic on the prince. I would never take away another's control over themselves from them, even if I had any idea how to. In a way, I'm grateful this happened. Now I know how spineless and weak he is, to turn so easily from someone he claimed to love, to condemn her to die, on the false words of a jealous girl." Venom dripped from my words. I was truly sickened by the two of them. The bitterness and anger still raged inside me, but I no longer had tears to shed.

I did not expect anyone there to believe me. Especially now that they had seen me use magic right in front of them. But I _would_ be heard.

"If you had not forced me to this, I would never have broken the vow I made to never to use magic. But I refuse to die for your jealousy and spite!" I growled at Sister Miku. "I will do nothing to you, though you deserve it. I will harm no one. But you wanted a monster, Sister, you wanted a demon? _Congratulations! _You've created one."

At that, I leapt from the cross and took off into the sky, my wings working instinctively to take me where I wanted to go. I would travel as far as I could. A different country, across the sea, to sleep underneath a different sky. I didn't really care where I would go or what I would do. But I would _live_.

_Come now, gather around. Behold such a saddening tale…_


End file.
